


A Prisoner To Change

by XxxSpamxxX



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Bending (Avatar), Dimension Cannon, Drama, F/M, Forbidden Love, Love, Prison, Prisoner of War, Romance, Self-Acceptance, Trauma, Zutara, Zutara Month, Zutara Week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-28 21:26:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21398893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XxxSpamxxX/pseuds/XxxSpamxxX
Summary: Zuko saves Katara from Zhao in order to lure the avatar to him. What neither of them expects is to develop a relationship like no other.
Relationships: Aang/Toph Beifong, Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Toph Beifong/Sokka
Comments: 15
Kudos: 140
Collections: Zutara ♥, zutara





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Zutara story :) Your typical prisoner love story but with a twist :)

KATARA slid her back against the cold, metal wall and allowed her knees to come in front of her breast, her arms wrapped around them and her head had fallen in between them. The tears she had been holding back had finally made their unwanted appearance, and she let them. They streamed uncontrollably down her face and she forced herself to not let her cries become verbal by biting them back as they itched at the tip of her throat. She told herself at first that she wouldn’t succumb to her emotions, that doing so would only be her downfall, but they seemed to overwhelm the waterbender. 

The last few days had been pure hell for her, she spent the time staring at nothing but darkness saved for the small light that shined in through the window. Her captors had occasionally brought her food and water, but it was very little amounts; barely enough to get by. There was a small toilet in the corner in the room that they had expected her to do her business in, but she wasn’t at all comfortable with doing so and only did it when she felt she was going to soil herself. 

The captain himself had been down there a number of times to question her about the whereabouts of her friend and brother, but each time she refused, standing her ground. But each time yielded a different punishment, one more harsher than the next. 

It started off small with verbal threats, but as time went on he began to get more physical. He started pushing her, but it soon escalated to balls of fire being thrown her way. From then it became slaps, punches, hair pulling, and each day it sapped her energy. Not only did it leave her with many bruises, but she had little to no knowledge of physical combat and without her element around her, all she could do was scream verbal threats and deflect his attacks anyway possible; but they only made him even angrier. 

The door opened again and her head snapped up and she jumped up from her sitting position, lucky for her, it was just a guard. “Admiral wishes to see you.” 

“Why can’t he just come here?” she questioned. 

“I’m instructed not to answer any questions, come with me please.” was all he said before moving to cuff her wrist together. 

To her surprise he brought her to the top deck, and for the first time in a while she was able to get some fresh air. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, relishing the smell and feel of the cool outside air. When she opened them again, she surveyed her surroundings and was utterly surprised to find another ship sitting directly across from the one she had been held captive in. 

Zhao stood talking with someone and soon enough he turned to her, a sinister smile on his face. She frowned in disgust and watched as he and another male started making their way toward her. 

“See, here she is.” Zhao said, gesturing toward Katara, “just as I said.” 

“Are you any closer to knowing the whereabouts of the avatar?” the mysterious man asked as his eyes roamed up and down Katara. She shivered with unease. 

“No, unfortunately not,” Zhao glared at the waterbender, “but I’ve got a couple ways of making her talk that I have yet to use.” 

“I’ll talk to the general about sticking around for a few days to see if we can assist you.” the man said with a smirk, his eyes again roaming up and down Katara’s figure, this time she averted her gaze to the sea, mentally convincing herself that it wasn’t the kind of look she feared.   
She was thrown back into her cell, and she felt herself beginning to mope all over again; she missed everything. She missed her brother, Aang, Appa, and Momo. She missed small things she never thought she’d loose; fresh air, new clothes, bathing, waterbending. 

Part of her wanted her brother and Aang to come to her rescue; she was hopeful that they would succeed. But the other part of her feared what would happen if they came and lost; Zhao would have his hands on the entire group, she’s not sure he would be keen on keeping everyone besides Aang alive. 

She blamed herself for being so naive as to split from Aang and Sokka so far that they couldn’t hear the sounds of her screams as she was bounded and kidnapped by Zhao and his men. She fought then, and fought as hard as she could and used the little waterbending skills she but it was to no avail. 

-

Hours had passed, and it was while laying sprawled out across the floor did she hear the sound of her cell door opening. She jumped to her feet immediately, and she squinted in the almost dark cell trying to figure out who it was. 

When he turned around, Katara expected it to be Zhao, or one of the guards, but to her dismay, it was the man Zhao had been conversing with earlier. At the mere sight of him she felt her blood run cold, her heartbeat quickened, and she began distancing herself as far from his possible. Whatever he wanted with her, she knew his intentions were anything but pure. 

“You know, young water bender, it’s been a long time since I’ve came face to face with a woman.” he said, a sinister smile creeping on his ugly face, “When I heard the news that Zhao had captured one, I knew I had to convince the others to see if it was really you. Of course, no one knew my real intentions.” 

The closer he moved, the further Katara moved, “Stay back,” she warned him, trying to be as threatening as possible, but it came out weak.

“Being on a ship for weeks at a time and only stopping for a few hours to get supplies leaves me with no time to satisfy my needs. But with you here, no one around you, no one to hear you..” 

“Get out, get away from me,” she could almost feel tears scratching at the back of her eyes as he loomed closer and she was backed against the cold wall. 

“I could do just about whatever I wanted.” 

He had gotten so close Katara was able to see over his shoulder, she noticed that he had left the door ajar. She was overwhelmed with joy, but made sure not to show as it would give away her findings. She knew she had to be fast and make this in one quick movement, otherwise all hope would be lost. She waited until he was close enough and to her luck he raised one hand to put over her head, and leaned his face in for a kiss, and she took that as an opportunity to dart under his arms and run out the door. 

She sprinted as fast as she could, not knowing or caring where she was going. She even contemplated that if she managed to get to the top of the deck, she’d jump clean off. 

She could hear footsteps behind her as she ran, making as many twists and turns as possible until she turned to a dead end. He hadn’t seen where she had turned, but she knew that if they looked this way, the would find her. The waterbender felt helpless, not knowing what to do. She almost ran back into the open when she felt a hand wrap around her arm and yanked her into a room. 

The moment she was in the door was shut and she was chest to back with someone who had their hand over her mouth and stomach and she immediately began fighting and prying away whoever it was. 

“Stop fighting! It’s me!” she heard him say and she immediately halted her actions, he dropped his hand from her mouth and she immediately turned to face him. She recognized his voice any day. 

“Zuko?!”


	2. A Jump towards freedom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The water feels fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapters are allot shorter then I had imagined but I like them nonetheless. They're all 1,000+ words each. Enjoy :)

“What are you doing here?” she asked, a number of emotions fitting through her. She didn’t know whether or not she was happy to see him, or even why he had grabbed her. 

“Keep your voice down or they’ll hear you.” he whispered, not answering her question. 

She obeyed and allowed silence to fill the room, nothing but their breathing occupying the space. The two teenagers were squished against each other in the storage closet, her chest up against his chest and his arm around her back. She could feel his hot breath against her ear and she shuddered; not in disgust, but in remembrance of the time the pirates tied her to a tree and he tried to bribe her with her mom’s necklace. Still, behind trapped in a confined space with Zuko was better then in a cell with a potential predator. 

They waited until they didn’t hear footsteps and shouting before he finally spoke up, “I think we’re fine now.” 

“What are you doing here?” she asked again, wasting no time. 

“If I tell you now, you’ll try to run.” he told her.

She frowned, “That just makes me want to run more.” 

Zuko exhaled in annoyance, deciding that he should probably tell her now, seeing as it won’t work without her knowing, “I’m kidnapping you.” 

“What?” she said, startled, “Uh, news flash your highness, your admiral Zhao has already succeeded in doing that.” she retorted sarcastically. 

“He’s not my admiral.” Zuko scowled, “And I know that, waterbender. I’m kidnapping you from him.” 

“Why?”

Zuko took a deep breath before explaining, “Zhao’s plans are stupid. He thinks beating you will get the whereabouts of the avatar.” 

“It won’t. He could beat me all he likes; I’m not telling anything to him or you.” 

“I know,” he said, “which is why I’m going to take you as my prisoner and do things my way.” 

Katara instinctively tried to back up, only to slightly bump her head against the wall, “What do you mean your way? What are you going to do with me?”

“I’m not going to do anything to you. I’m going to let the avatar come to me,” he told her knowingly, “once he receives word about his precious waterbender being trapped upon the tortures ship, he’ll come and save you.”

“You can’t do that!” Katara nearly shouted, “I’m not going with you.” She wished like hell she could gain some distance so she wouldn’t have to endure the prince’s intense gazes or be in such close proximity with him. Her nose could touch chest. 

“I knew you’d refuse,” Zuko chuckled darkly, “But it’s either with me, or stay here with Zhao.” 

“And what’s the difference?” 

“I’m not the best person, but I’m not going to beat you like he does.” he said, “I’m barely even going to touch you.” 

“That’s not very convincing.” 

“I’m not trying to be.” Zuko scowled again, “You asked for a difference, I’m telling you one. I’m taking you with me whether you want to or not, waterbender,” 

She glared at him, but soon her features softened and she sighed. She hated Zuko, there was no doubt about it, but she knew she’d be a lot better off him on his ship. Zhao was a ruthless, sadistic tyrant who gave little to no care about people, or about the pain he causes or inflicts on to others. She knew Zuko was ruthless… but he was less worse than Zhao. Zuko never aimed to inflict pain on others, she remembered how he would always give people a chance before he had to use force.

“Hand him over, and I won’t have to hurt you.” she remembered him using the first time she had met him. 

“Tell me where he is and I won’t have to hurt you or your brother.” She remembers from the pirates incident. Rather than resorting to violence, like Zhao would have done, he tried to tempt her with her mother necklace. Facts are, being on Zuko’s ship was going to be a lot better then being on Zhao’s. 

“I’ll come with you.” she said, biting against her pride, “anything’s better than staying in this hell hole.” 

“Good,” Zuko smirked, happy he won’t have to force the waterbender, something he wasn’t too keen on doing but would do if needed.

“When do we leave?” 

“When nightfall hits.” he said, “We’ve been here for a while, it shouldn’t be long.” they unfortunately had to trust their guts because there was no window or anything else to indicate the time of day. 

They waited a little bit longer before Zuko made the call that it should have been nightfall. He slipped back on his helmet, opened the door, and peaked on the outside to make sure it was clear. He grabbed Katara’s wrist and slid out of the room as quickly as possible, Katara following. 

She followed his lead as they sneakily made their way to the top deck, where Zuko’s ship was still sitting right next to the Zhao’s. As they moved closer to the plank connecting the ships, they heard footsteps heading toward the deck. Katara panicked and looked at Zuko with wide eyes, silently asking him what to do. 

Zuko looked over at his ship which was just a few feet away, however he knew that even if he made over there in time, he wouldn’t have had enough time to hide Katara and lift the plank. He looked around again for another solution before making the most rash one of them all.

He grabbed Katara’s hand and jumped overboard with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end of chapter two!  
What would you have done if you were Zuko? If you were Katara?


	3. New Roomate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko has a new roommate, and Katara ponders about the prince himself.

Jumping overboard was the last thing Katara expected Zuko to do, with her nonetheless. While underwater, Zuko still had hold of her wrist to ensure that she wouldn’t try anything while surrounded by water, but Katara was too weak, too tired, and too inexperienced to take the prince on at the moment. She also didn’t want to risk being found by Zhao. 

They swam under the freezing water all the way to the other side of Zuko’s ship where they climbed up a ladder onto Zuko’s ship. Zuko immediately grabbed her wrist again and led her the upper headquarters of ship. 

They entered a dark, red room, with fire nation decorations, a wall of candles, a dresser, closet, a bed and door which Katara assumed was the bathroom. Judging by how nice it looked, the waterbender guessed it was either Zuko’s or someone else high in command’s room. There was no way it was a spare room. 

“This is my room.” Zuko told her as we walked over to his closet, “You’ll be staying here until we depart from Zhao.”

“What? Why?” 

“Once Zhao finds out you’re missing, the first place he’ll look is my ship.” Zuko explained, “but the last place he’ll check is my headquarters.”

“But I don’t want to sleep with you.” she scowled, “Who knows what your true intentions are.” 

Zuko rolled his eyes, “Don’t flatter yourself,” he reached into his drawer and pulled out a large red t-shirt, tossing it over at the teen, “here.”

“You’re giving me your clothes?” she asked, surprised. 

“It’s just something to sleep in until we can find you something suitable, waterbender. Like I said, don’t flatter yourself.” Zuko smirked, “In fact you need to humble yourself and head over to the bath; you smell.”

“Your admiral kept me locked in a cell for days, you think I’m supposed to smell like panda lilies and roses?” she responded in annoyance, but nonetheless headed to the bathroom for a much needed cleaning. 

She took a hot, searing bath, cleansing her body, face and hair and used the lotion that Zuko had in his bathroom. It smelled something like he always did; like burning maple wood, but she didn’t mind, it was better than nothing. 

Her bindings were extremely dirty and she decided it wouldn’t be too smart to put them back on, but instead she washed them and hang them to dry in the bathroom. She used the weird brush she found in the cabinet to tame her wild hair and put it back in it’s usual braid. She stared at her reflection in the mirror, noting how empty her eyes were; devoid of all happiness, all hope. She noticed the scars that Zhao had left from the beatings and used what she assumed was her only alone time to heal herself. When she was done in the bathroom, Katara felt completely different. She was still visibly upset about her predicament, but knew that she was better off then how she was just a few hours ago. 

She left the bathroom in nothing but the t-shirt Zuko had given her and luckily for her went well past her thighs. Zuko wasn’t in the room when she got out, and so she sat down on the bed, still wary of spending a night here in the room. The room itself was clearly better then the cell, but she thought that if she slept in his room, she’d have to sleep with him. The thought of her and Zuko in the same bed put a chill down her spine. Zuko wasn’t nearly as bad as Zhao, but that doesn’t mean she was ready to lay with the guy. 

She hoped that maybe Zuko would sleep somewhere else, at least until Zhao was gone and he could move her somewhere else, but she knew deep down the prince was too prideful to allow a ‘watertribe peasant’ such as herself to completely take over his sleeping quarters tonight. 

The sound of the door opened had interrupted her thoughts and entered the room was a clothless Zuko wearing nothing but a towel. Katara blinked constantly before averting her eyes away from the prince, who made his way over to his drawers, unaware of the effect he had on the waterbender. 

With the heat burning at Katara’s cheeks as they turned a crimson red, she asked, “You bathed somewhere else?” 

“I did,” he said, searching through the drawers nonchalantly, “I figured you were going to be in there for a while,” 

“Are you sleeping in here?” 

“Why wouldn’t I? It’s my room, waterbender.” 

“I was hoping you wouldn’t.” she admitted, “but I knew you would.” 

“It’s not like I’m going to touch you.” he told her as he slipped on a pair of sleeping pants, “I told you, I’m not interested.” 

Katara rolled her eyes, “Thanks.” she said sarcastically. 

She made herself comfortable on the farthest side of the bed, relishing the feel of the soft bed and covers, something she had not felt in too long. She felt the bed dip, and the prince slipped in on the other side of the bed. The bed was big enough so that the two of them could sleep without barely having to touch each other. Zuko waved his hand and the candles blew out, plunging the room in darkness accompanied by silence. The only sounds were their breathing and the waves outside bumping against the ship. 

Katara was unable to sleep right away. She was too worried about her life and what was to come being Zuko’s prisoner instead of Zhao’s. She already appreciated the fact that she was able to clean herself the prince allowed her to sleep in his head quarters, but she knew the real reason why and she wondered additionally if it was to keep a close eye on her. She and the prince both knew Katara wouldn’t try to escape now; she had nowhere to go, and she wouldn’t risk being caught by Zhao. She was too weak to fight, and she was sure he knew that, and that was why he allowed her to run her own water; he knew she wouldn’t do anything with it. 

She glanced over at the firebender next to her, she couldn’t see much in the darkness but the moonlight shining through the window allowed her to see that his eyes were closed, but he still didn’t look asleep. Even then, his face expressions was still a scowl. She’s never seen the prince do anything besides scowl, smirk, or frown. He always looked distressed or upset. 

Her eyes studied his face; he was handsome, that was for sure. Even with the scar painting his face he was still the most handsome guy she’d ever seen. She wasn’t too fond of his hair, she thought just having ninety five percent of your head shaved with one pony tail was kind of stupid, but it worked for him. 

She stared at him, a number of questioning running through her mind; why are you doing this? Why do you need Aang to restore your honor? How did you get that scare? Questions she always wondered, but doubted she was ever going to get the answer to. She shook her head, and turned the other way, attempting to follow in the prince’s lead and get a good night’s rest.


	4. A breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems like a friendship is blossoming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A pretty lengthy chapter it you ask me.

Katara woke up feeling better than she did in ages. For one thing, her back wasn’t sore from the metal floor, her neck wasn’t crooked from the lack of support, and she wasn’t burning up in the ninety five degree cell.Katara was from the south pole, being cold was her thing, so sitting for days in a hot cell was pure torture. 

She rolled over and found that the bed was empty and the prince was in the bathroom, she could tell from the running water. She sat up in bed and stretched her arms out; realizing that this would probably be the only time she was going to sleep in the bed. Soon after Zhao finishes his search, she would be forced probably sleep in a cell again. 

A knock at the door interrupted her musings, “Prince Zuko, it’s me. Are you dressed?” 

The prince was in the bathroom, and Katara recognized the guys voice. He sounded like the old guy that was with Zuko the day of the pirates incident. She glanced back at the bathroom door, then at the room door and decided to open it. When she did, the man stepped back a little surprised to see Katara in the room. 

“Forgive me.” he said, cocked his head to the side, “Are you one of Prince Zuko’s…?”

Katara immediately shook her head, “No, no…” she felt a brush come up to her face.

He stared at her for a minute before he realized it, “OH my! You’re the watertribe girl, the avatars companion.” his eyes went wide, “Are you the one Zhao had kidnapped?” 

She hesitantly nodded before stepping back, afraid that he would snitch and take her back; he didn’t give her that type of vibe, in fact she remembers him being quite kind the last time they encountered one another. Still though, she didn’t know who he was. 

“Uncle.” she heard from behind her, and she whipped her head around to find a shirtless, wet Zuko standing there with a towel on his head. 

Katara’s face was more red then the room itself. This time she took the time to check him out; and boy did she enjoy what she saw; chiseled abs, buff biceps, a strong v-line. The water was dripping down from his head to his body. Zuko couldn’t get more attractive. 

“What are you doing here?” Zuko was focused on his uncle, he didn’t see her bluntly checking him out. He ran the towel all across his head to dry it. 

“The admiral has found out the girl is missing.” he said, coming all the way into the room and shutting the door, “I was going to suggest keeping her somewhere close, but it seems you have already had that idea.” 

Zuko glared, “Nothing happened, Uncle. She’s just here until the admiral leaves.” 

“Of course prince Zuko.” there was a hint of teasing in his voice, “Well, allow me to introduce myself. I’m general Iroh, Prince Zuko is my nephew, and I hope he has treated you well.” 

“He’s been…” Katara paused, eyeing the prince as he put on his armor, “Zuko.” 

The general let out a hearty laugh, “That he is.” he said, smiling, “After the admiral leaves, I’ll send for one of the guards to collect you to eat breakfast with me. I’m having jasmine tea; you’ll love it.”

Katara smiled, “Thank you.” 

“No problem..” he trailed off, hinting at her that he didn’t know her name. Or didn’t remember, rather.

“Katara.” she told him. 

“Katara. Beautiful name. I will see you later, Miss Katara.” he gave her one last smile before leaving. 

“He was nice.” she commented to Prince Zuko, who was fully dressed and leaning up against the dresser with his arms folded. 

He scoffed, “You're a prisoner, not a guest, so don’t get used to it.” 

She rolled her eyes, and averted her gaze the bathroom, she peaked and noticed her bindings still hanging where she left them before, and even from here she could see that they were still wet. So much for getting dressed in normal clothes, she thought. 

“How long do you think before the admiral leaves?” she asked.

“A while. He’s not going to stop until he’s convinced you’ve escaped and drowned.” 

“Maybe I should’ve.” she mumbled to herself, but the prince still heard her. 

“You still can.” Zuko assured her with a devilish smirk, 

“Well aren’t you sweet,” She rolled her eyes at him.

“I try.” 

Katara puffed and blew a few strands of hair out of her face. Things could be worse for her. She could be sitting back in her cell, dirty, and being abused by Zhao, but instead she’s sitting comfortably on a bed with the arrogant prince, all cleaned and refreshed. She was beyond grateful for it, but that still didn’t change the fact that they were imprisoning her; she was here against her will. 

“After Zhao leaves, where are you going to take me?” 

“I haven’t decided yet.” he shrugged, “But you aren’t going to stay here; so don’t get comfortable.” 

Katara smirked and had an idea. She leaned back onto the bed and spread her arms and legs out like a snow angel, she smiled happily and took a deep breath, “Oh but I just love it here!” 

Zuko scowled, “Get up.” 

“Why? It feels so good. It’s so comfortable, I wanna stay here forever.” she grabbed one side of the cover and rolled over, rolling herself into a burrito but had miscalculated the amount of space she had, and promptly landed on the floor, entangled in sheets. 

“Oh, you've got to be kidding me,” she struggled against the sheets but it was no use, she was trapped in tight. She didn’t mean for this to happen. 

The prince was standing in front of her, laughing his royal ass off and she glared at him, “Stop laughing and help me.” 

“Why? You want to stay here forever so stay here forever.” he teased, smirking. 

“Zuko,” she whined, “this isn’t a joke, I’m stuck.” 

“I know.” 

“So help me.” 

He paused for a second, “Beg me.” 

“What?” she scowled, “I’m not going to beg you.” 

“Then you’re not going to get out of that, either.” 

“Zuko!” she said, struggling a bit more to see one last time if she could free herself, she sighed when she couldn’t. She bowed her head for a second to swallow her pride, and looked back up at the firebender, who was staring at her with his all too famous smirk, “Please help me.” 

“Sorry, what was that?”

“You heard me.” 

“I don’t think I did.” 

Katara glared angrily at him, but nonetheless repeated herself, “Please help me,” 

“Help you…” he hinted at her with a raised eyebrow to finish. 

“Your highness.” she finished. 

“Ah there it is.” he said proudly, enjoying the look of disgust on her face. He grabbed the burrito and spun Katara out of it. 

She spun in the circle, and was a bit dizzy, but righted herself. She fixed the t-shirt and made sure she wasn’t advertising any of her goods to the prince, and sat on the bed with a sigh, “You a jerk, you know that?” 

“I just helped you.” 

“Yeah after you made me beg.”

“I could’ve just left you there.” he told her matter-a-factually. 

“The fact that you said that just proved my point.” 

“I also saved you from Zhao, that’s the kindest thing anyone could ever do for a person.” 

“You saved me from imprisonment just to imprison me again.” 

“I saved you from abuse.” he said, his eyes gazing up and down her figure, “judging by your attitude I’m starting to think it was a mistake.” 

His gaze made her cheeks turn red and she looked away from him, raising her knees to her breast, and sitting her chin in between, “I’m glad you saved me, Zuko, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to be grateful, I’m still a prisoner, you’re still the enemy,” 

He rolled his eyes, “Be what you want, waterbender, I could care less.”

“I have a name,” she said, glaring at him, “And I know you know it.” 

“I address you how I see fit, waterbender,”

“Fine, arrogant, rude, jerk face.”

Zuko scowled at her, “Could you be any more immature?”

“Could you be any more of a jerk?” 

“You know what? How about you just stop talking?” he said, more of a demand than a request. He was getting quite irritated with other teenager. 

“Maybe I will!”

“Fine!”

“Good!” 

Silence filled the room once again, and Katara found herself back on the bed, wrapped comfortably in the covers, her back facing the prince. He really got on her nerves, and she wished he would leave. This is his room, she knew, but he was able to leave, she wasn’t. 

Katara found her emotions bubbling up inside her again; aching to be released. She closed her eyes and bit back any cries, physical or verbal, that she felt; she wouldn’t let the prince see her cry. She hadn’t really known why she suddenly started crying, but didn’t try to figure it out, knowing the answer would scare her. 

But she couldn’t help her emotions; they became too much, and overflowed. Her tears began once again streaming down her face and she stuffed her face further in the pillow to muffle the sounds of her cries. Her hands clenched the blanket and she gave into her emotions; letting each one pour out of her like a waterfall. 

She hated this; she felt weak, she felt vulnerable to the enemy. The tears were a mental sting to her pride. The only thing the young girl could do was hold herself close and be her own comfort. It was hard though, seeing as she had lost all hope; all happiness. Inside she was empty; devoid of anything, and she couldn’t rely on herself, she couldn’t help herself; and that's what made her so vulnerable. 

Shortly after her cries started, she heard the door close and slam shut, and she knew the prince had left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do you think Katara started crying?


	5. Zuko

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Zuko sees things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My chapters aren't really told in point of view of the characters but for the most part it keeps to the thoughts of one character.

Zuko watched as the angry admiral opened every door in the prison hold of his ship, searching in vain of the waterbender. His back leaned against the wall, he pretended to act uninterested in the admirals behavior when deep down he was overwhelmed with delight that he had the upper hand on him. 

“She’s not here.” Zuko said for the fifth time within the hour, “I told you, she probably escaped.”

“She suddenly escapes when you show up? Not a coincidence.” Zhao responded angrily, ripping open another empty cell, “Are you sure none of your men didn’t get their hands on her?” 

“Are you sure none of yours didn’t?” 

“I saw the way commander Pencey was looking at her, I know he tried something. He’s denying it, but I know he did.” 

Zuko raised an eyebrow, “What are you talking about? Commander Pencey isn’t a predator.” 

“You didn’t see the way he looked at her.” he said, “He did something, I know he did, I just didn’t think he would let her escape.” 

“You knew he was planning something that disgusting and you didn’t stop him?” Zuko asked, honestly astounded by what he was hearing. 

“I planned on doing it myself.” 

“What?!” Zuko quickly straightened up, backing away from the admiral, “She’s a teenager.” 

“She’s a dirty female who’s under my prison hold.” he told Zuko as he brushed past him to check the next deck, “I do what I want with her.” he said darkly, before leaving the prince consumed in his thoughts. 

He knew the admiral was a cruel, cruel, man. He knew he was dark, but he didn’t know he was a predator. And he didn’t know Commander Pency was either. With this in mind, he raced up to his head quarters to keep a closer eye on Katara; feeling as though he couldn’t even trust the men aboard his own ship.

When he came into the room, she was sound asleep, still tucked away under his covers. He was grateful that the crying had stopped, seeing that was the reason he had fled the room anyway.

It wasn’t as though he didn’t care for her crying, he felt a tinge of guilt for the waterbender, but that quickly washed away. It wasn’t like he could provide much comfort to her, what was he to say? “I’m sorry I kidnapped you and I’m using you to lure the avatar to me.” He was the reason she had broken down and he knew that, but there was nothing he could do about it.

So he left her to let her emotions out, assuming that was what all females do. He knew he couldn’t physically console the girl, not that he wanted to. Zuko was very adamant about touching unless he permitted someone to, and was usually only his uncle or female favors. 

His eyes roamed over her figure again and he remembered how he had to force him to do something just so he wouldn’t look at her. She looked damn good in nothing but his t-shirt, and it was almost as if she failed to see that. She didn’t realize it, but he often could see her round nipples protruding through her t-shirt, and the way her perfectly shaped ass jiggled when she walked. She was, no doubt, annoying and the enemy, but that didn’t stop him from thinking she was mildly attractive. 

Her body wasn’t the only thing that was attractive, he thought as he looked over at her fact that was stained with dry tears, she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her puffed cheeks, round lips, and long brown hair was something different then he was used to seeing, but he liked it, he liked it a lot. 

Despite her attraction, Zuko still fought to maintain a prisoner to captive relationship with the waterbender. He wanted her to listen to him, and more or less fear him, but he knew that would be hard. She was stubborn and held her ground, she gave witty remarks and always had something to say. In a way, he admired that about her. 

It was long before she shuffled around in bed and her eyes fluttered open, and she saw the back of the Prince himself. She wondered how long she had been asleep. 

“Is Zhao gone yet?” She asked. 

“No. He’s probably on the third level now, it won’t be long before he leaves,” he answered, “I hope.” 

“Good. The sooner he’s gone the better.” she said, then clutched her stomach, “I’m hungry.” she told him. 

“You’ll eat later,” he said, “but first I need to ask you something,” he turned to her completely and watched and she sat up, giving him a curiously look.

“What?”

“While you were on Zhao’s ship, did he or anyone else… touch you in any way that you didn’t approve of?”

She paused for a minute, her face went pale a little, “One guy did, well, he tried. He came from your ship.” she answered, averting her gaze, “He was stupid, though. He left the door opened and that’s how I escaped. I left just before anything bad happened.” 

“Zhao never touched you?” 

“No, but he gave me weird looks. I wouldn’t put it past him if he tried.” 

“He told me as going to.” he responded angrily, “If I hadn’t grabbed you when I did..”

“I’m not sure what would have happened.” she lied. She knew exactly what would have happened, but she didn’t want to think of it. 

Zuko was visibly angry. How could someone on his own ship, his own people, be so cruel? He knew the fire nation had some devistingly evil plans, but this just heinous. Was this the nation he was trying to go back to? It wasn’t the same one it was when he left, that’s for sure. 

Zuko had his fair share of terrible acts, he had nearly burned down villages and forest during his banishment, but he never aimed to hurt anyone. He wasn’t there to inflict pain on anyone purposely. That didn’t make him feel any better though, because although there had been no immoral intent he still committed the act. It made him think, how is he any better from Zhao? 

Suddenly, there was a hard knock at the door, “Open up!” they two recognized that voice all too well; it was the admiral himself.


	6. A mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katara gets a glimpse of something she wasn't suppose to see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really had no good way of ending this chapter so sorry if its a bit shitty.

Katara had never been so nervous in her life. She was shaking in her shirt underneath Zuko’s bed, listening to the admiral and Zuko talk. He was pacing around Zuko’s room, not doubt searching for her. She just prayed he wouldn’t look too low. 

“I told you, she’s not here.” Zuko said annoyed.

“I’m just making sure.” The admiral said, smirking, “The waterbender is a young, beautiful girl, around your age. It wouldn't be a surprise to me if you had her stowed away in your concubines.” 

“Just because she’s attractive doesn’t mean I’m going to sleep with her.” Zuko rolled his eyes, disgusted by the admiral’s behavior, “I don’t want anything to do with her.” 

Zhao raised an eyebrow, “Interesting, because if you had her you could, in fact, question her yourself about the avatars whereabouts.” 

“I’ll find the avatar my own, thanks.” 

“Oh I’m sure you will.” Zhao rolled his eyes, “It doesn’t look like she’s here, but rest assured prince Zuko, I will find her.” 

“Good for you, but my crew and I will be departing soon.” Zuko said, “so good luck searching the ocean.”

Zhao glared at him, but Zuko was a strong willed person, and didn’t back down. The stare down happened for a while before Zhao turned to leave, exiting the room with a loud slam of the door. Zuko locked it. 

“What a jerk.” Katara said as she slid from underneath the bed and she dusted herself off, “I can’t believe he thinks I’d sleep with you.” 

“I don’t think he meant willingly, waterbender.” Zuko told her. 

“He’s disgusting.” she scowled, “On second thought, I’d glad you saved me from him, let me kiss your feet.” 

Zuko laughed, “Feel free.” 

The waterbender smiled at him before sitting down on the bed, “Never in a million years, jerkbender.” 

—

After Zuko had departed from Zhao, Zuko and the crew and resumed their normal routines. It was in the middle of the day when the ship started to sail again, and Zuko was sitting in his room with the candles lit all around him, meditating. 

Katara was sitting with the favorable general Iroh, listening to the man go on about tea. She found herself with a goofy grin on her face. This was the first time she had enjoyed herself in days. 

“But Jasmine has to be the best.” he said, bringing the cup to his lips to take another sip. 

“I see.” she said, “Iroh, how are you so.. sweet and kind, but almost every other firebender I’ve met was a hothead jerk?” 

Iroh laughed, “Every good tree has at least one bad apple, and every bad tree has at least one good apple.” 

“I see.” 

“How has my nephew been treating you?” 

“Better then Zhao, that’s one thing.” she rolled her eyes subtly, “He thinks I should be grateful he kidnapped me from Zhao’s ship, and in part I am, but he forgets he still holding me captive as his prisoner.”

“The conditions are better, no?”

“Oh, far better,” she sipped her tea, “But his intentions weren’t to save me because of Zhao's conditions; he saved me for his own selfish reasons.”

“Hm.” Iroh said, he went to pick up the pot of tea but ended up burning his hand a bit in the process, “ouch!” he said. 

“Are you alright?” Katara asked, concerned.

“Yes.” he replied, cleaning up the mess, “It seems even after my years as a firebender, I still can’t get used to being burned.” the general looked down at his newly burned hand. 

“Here, allow me,” she said, and gently she took the old man’s hand and used the water from the jug next to them to heal his burns. 

“Oh, you’re a healer?” he was pleasantly surprised, “I wondered why I didn’t see any bruises on you.”

“I am. I healed some of them myself.” 

“Uncle,” the two heard from behind and came in Zuko, shutting the door behind himself, “What are you having the guards do in the prison hold?” 

“Miss Katara has informed you and her won’t be sharing a bedroom after today, so I’m arranging for her to have a much more suitable cell.” 

Zuko scowled, “She’s a prisoner, uncle. Our cells are just fine the way they are.” 

“Maybe for some hardened criminal. But Miss Katara here? No.”

“We don’t have money for these renovations uncle,” 

“We wouldn’t have to make them if you would allow her to sleep in the upper headquarters.” 

“The only rooms up there are mines, yours, and the kitchen.” Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose, “What else can I do?”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind sharing a room with you Prince Zuko,” 

“I-” Zuko huffed and actual steam came out of his mouth, starting Katara a little, “Fine. At least this way I can keep a closer eye on you.” 

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Katara sneered jokingly. 

Zuko’s face flushed red and he left the room, not answering her question. Katara and the general giggled. 

—

When night time hit, Katara was back in Zuko’s room, all showered and ready for bed. She was standing in front of the bedroom mirror, combing through her hair. This time she was able to wear her bindings to sleep instead of a simple t-shirt and she felt a lot more comfortable. 

The prince had came out of the bathroom then, again wearing just a towel, and Katara rolled her eyes, “Do you ever get dressed in the bathroom?”

“Why should I? It’s my room.” He said with a scowl, he walked over the dresser stood next to her as she combed through her long, brown, locks. 

He eyed her through the mirror for a second, admiring her beauty and realizing that he’d never seen her with her hair down. She’s beautiful, he thought. 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, looking at him warily. He blushed and turned his attention to his search for new clothes. 

“I just noticed I’ve never seen your hair down.”

Katara looked at herself for a second and frowned, “It’s easier to tame when it’s in a braid.” 

The prince grunted in response and lifted up from his search of clothes, but in the process he had let go of the material around his waist. Zuko’s towel dropped unexpectedly and Katara’s eyes widened. It took her quite a minute to avert her guys and the manhood that had been present to her, but eventually she did, and her cheeks turned a crimson red. Zuko was quite endowed, she thought shamefully and immediately felt like beating her head against the mirror. 

Zuko scrambled to get his towel back around his waist, not all intending for the incident to have happened. His own cheeks betrayed him by blushing a light red, but he fought against it and attempted to regain his composure.

Neither of two had mentioned what happened, but rather continued their night routinely like normally. They climbed into their opposite sides of the bed, and Zuko flicked the light off. 

However neither one of them was asleep, and it was painfully obvious. 

Katara waited a while and bit her lip, “I’ve never seen one before.” she whispered into the darkness. 

“You’re gonna make it worse than it already is.” Zuko sighed. 

“There’s no way anyone can make it worse.”

“Good, then let’s not speak of it.” 

“You didn’t do it on purpose, did you?”

“What?” Zuko sat up in bed, “Why would I do that on purpose, waterbender? What are you trying to say?” 

“I don’t know! It could be your subtle way of trying to seduce me.” 

“Don’t flatter yourself.” he scowled and rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath before speaking again, a smirk playing at his lips, 

“Besides, my seducing tactics are far better than that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you had saw Zuko's smlong, what would you have said?


	7. A bad dream and a food fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katara has a bad dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably the longest chapter ever and it's my favorite chapter.

“Tell me where he is, waterbender.” 

“I’m not telling you anything!” 

It was then did she feel a hard slap go across her face, hard enough that it knocked some wind out her and she fell flat on her butt in the cell. She winced in pain, her eyes tearing up, but she bit them back. Just as she was trying to get up, he brought his foot to her stomach, which made her drop back down to the floor. 

“Stop,” she cried, clutching her stomach in pain, staining her eyes with tears. 

“Tell me where he is.” 

She was silent this time, laid out on the cell floor. Her stomach and face throbbing with pain, but she held onto her pride, her hope. She didn’t care how badly he abused her; she wouldn’t compromise the location of Aang. Not for anything in the world. 

“Got nothing to say?” he asked angrily, his eyebrows furrowed, “I’ve tried reasoning with you, but it seems you’ve left me no choice.” he snarled. 

He kicked her again before heading for the door, and turned to her again, “No food for you today, peasant.” he slammed the door. 

Katara hugged herself again, her body rocking back and forth uncontrollably. She was sobbing until she heard the sound of someone calling her name, she looked around panicking, her breathing quickened and she backed away to the wall, “What?! Please! Leave me alone!”

“Katara!” 

Zuko shook the girls shoulder, “Come on, waterbender, wake up!” 

She eyes burst open and she bolted awake, her body convulsing uncontrollably, crying. She looked around and saw that she wasn’t in her cell, she was in Zuko’s bed room, Zhao wasn’t around anymore, and he wasn’t abusing her. When she calmed down, her surroundings coming to reality, she saw Zuko sitting on her legs looking at her with concern; something she never really saw in his eyes before. 

They were close, just as they were in the storage room on Zhao’s ship, he was looking down at her and she was looking up at him, her eyes blurry with tears. 

“I’m sorry.” she said hoarsely, sliding her feet from underneath the prince to bring them up to her chest. 

“You don’t have to be sorry.” he told her, his deep, raspy voice filling her ears. Nobody had ever told him, but his voice had one damn of an effect on her, especially with him so close. She could feel his breath against her skin, she shivered. 

“I dreamed about him again.” she said, “about Zhao. I tried, Zuko, I tried shrugging it off, pretending everything was fine. I tried joking about it,” she took a deep breath,”but I can’t, I can’t pretend. He beat be, relentlessly, I felt so weak, so inferior.” she admitted. Katara felt broken. Like pieces of herself were scattered across the floor and every time she tried to pick herself up, she cut herself. She couldn’t stop the bleeding, it continued to pour out of her body no matter how many times she tried; and over again she’s reminded that she can’t do it. She can’t help herself. 

She didn’t mean to share so much with firebender, but she couldn’t help it. She had been bottling everything up until eventually it spilled over and he had to be the one to witness.

The prince was speechless, the only person he’d ever known to be this broken was himself. He didn’t know what to do when it was someone else suffering. He reached out his hand timidly, and gently touched her on her shoulder, she didn’t do anything but look over at him, her blue eyes glistening with tears. 

For the first time since they had met, he brought the girl to his body and wrapped his arms around her, his head burying in her shoulder. His hand rubbed her back and he occasionally gave her a reassuring squeeze. It took a minute, but she eventually let herself go in the prince’s arms. She sobbed into his naked chest, not caring if he saw her this way anymore. 

All that mattered was that she got the comfort she couldn’t get from herself. Whether or not it was from one of her worst enemies; he was still a person willing to allow her to break down onto him, and she took advantage of that. 

—

Never in a million years did Katara believe she would wake up comfortable in the prince’s arms; but she did. She was laying on top of him, her head resting comfortably on his strong chest and her hand clutching his shoulder, and her leg thrown over his torso. His own arm was under her body and wrapped around her waist. 

Her eyes fluttered open and she yawned, her night time episode coming back to her against her will. Realizing she was in the arms of the Prince, she shuffled away from him, not wanting to be so close when he had awoken. He might bite my damn arm off, she thought, but a smile crept up on her face, but he didn’t last night. 

Last night’s Zuko was probably the nicest Zuko she’d ever met. She couldn’t believe how compassionate he’d been last night. And the look in his eyes practically melted her insides. Looking over at the window, she realized that the sun hasn't even risen yet, and that was probably why the prince hadn't even woken up. 

She climbed out of bed and walked over to the bedroom mirror to take a good look at herself. She looked a mess, she thought, with her hair everywhere, her cheeks stained, and her eyes pink and puffy. 

“Ew.” she said while staring at herself, “What, did you get run over by Appa?” 

She went into the bathroom to fix herself for the day, but solemnly realized she didn’t have any clothes to wear. She glanced over at the prince while he was asleep, then back at the window and bit her lip. Oh well, she thought, it’s not like he never lent me clothes before. 

She rummaged through his drawers and found a pair of loose fitted black pants and a large black shirt. Luckily, the pants had a string in which allowed her to tie them they fit. By the time she had finished getting dressed, the sun had just started to rise and so did the prince. He moved to sit on the edge of the bed and saw the waterbender standing by the dresser, fiddling with the end of her braid. 

“Are you wearing my clothes?” he frowned angrily. 

“I didn’t have anything else.” 

“You should’ve asked first.” he grumbled, “What if I planned on wearing that today?” 

“You were asleep, would you really have wanted me to wake you up?”

“You could’ve waited until I’d woken up.” he said matter-factually, “Don’t just wear my things without asking, waterbender.” 

“Sorry your highness.” she rolled her eyes. 

Interrupting the two was a hard knock at the door, in which Zuko responded telling them to come in, it was one of the guards. He was carrying two trays full of food. “Prince Zuko, I have brought breakfast for you and Miss Katara.” 

“You can sit them down over there.” he gestured to the dresser and the guard followed orders, bowed, and left the room. 

Katra picked up one of the items of food and examined the label, “smoked fire flakes?” she read out loud. 

The prince got up and walked over to her, snatching it out her hand, “Don’t eat those, they’re too spicy.” 

“How do you know what’s too spicy for me?” she frowned, picking up the other one on his plate. He looked at her annoyed. 

“How often do you have fire nation food, waterbender?”

“I’ve never had fire nation food.” she scowled, “But that doesn’t mean I’ve never had spicy food, firebender.” 

“You know what? Go ahead.” he said, shrugging his shoulders. With one hand on the dresser supporting his weight and the other on his hip, he looked at her with raised eyebrows, “Eat it.” 

She glared at him challengingly before taking a hand full of the flakes and eating them. She didn’t feel anything at first and looking at him with an all knowingly look, but quickly the spiciness began to burn the hell out of her mouth. She tried keeping her composure but soon lost her resolve and spit out the flakes. She hopped and down rubbing her tongue furiously as the prince doubled over in laughter. 

“Itth nah funnah.” she tried to say, but couldn’t. She drank the water sitting next to the breakfast, her tongue slowly began to calm down. When it was over, the prince was still laughing his royal ass off she glared at him. 

She glanced over at the water sitting in his cup and smirked. The teen waterbender the used her abilities to waterbend the water out of his cup and onto his naked top form. The water landed mostly on his pony tail and it flipped and landed on his forehead. The prince immediately stopped and looked over at her with a glare. 

“It’s not funny.” 

“It’s a little funny.” 

“Yeah?” he asked, and took the fire flakes in his hand and dumb them all over her food. She looked at him with wide eyes and parted lips, “How funny is it now?” 

“Zuko! Now I can’t eat that.” she said, upset. 

“Not my problem.” he shrugged, a smirk playing at his lips. 

Katara looked between him and his untouched food, another devious smile creeping up on her lips, “Well I’m gonna make it your problem.” 

“Wha-”   
Before he could finish his sentence, the slab of hot rice was thrown at his face. The smirk fell off his lips and it quickly turned into a frown and his eyes narrowed in on the laughing waterbender in front of him. 

“You wanna play you immature brat? Let’s play.” 

The firebender picked up his own slab of rice, bigger than hers, and aimed straight for her hair. She shrieked in response, and glared at him, and the food fight began. They started picking up handfuls of food from the plates and anywhere they had thrown it, and tossing it at one another. As the match continued, they both began becoming covered in food. 

“Take this!” Katara shouted as she lifted up a handful of smoked sea slug from the dresser, but as she went to throw it at him, she slipped on the rice that was all over the floor, and started falling forward. She fell on top of the prince who was occupying himself with finding something to throw, and they both landed on the floor with an ump.

She landed squarely in between his legs, her arms on either side on his head, and his hands had wrapped around her waist during the fall. The two stared at each other for a while, their eyes glimmering with something neither of them understood at the moment. They could feel each others breathe on their skin, their noses touching.

And then, Katara burst into laughter. 

It was the first real laugh she had given since she’d been kidnapped by Zhao, and it was heartfelt and genuine. She laughed so hard her stomach began to cramp, and tears began to form. Zuko looked at her with furrowed eyebrows and began chuckling along with her. 

“What’s so funny?” he asked her despite laughing himself. 

“You.” she said, “all this. Look at us. We look like children.” she chuckled, “I haven’t played like this since I was young.”

She sat up a bit, sitting on her knees and the prince followed suit, from the way they sat, she was still in between his legs. 

He looked over at her, examining the food splattered all over her face and shook his head, “I can’t believe we did this.” 

“You had fun though.”

Zuko scowled, “I did not.” 

“You did so.” she retorted, standing up as carefully as possible,“Now come on, we’ve got to clean up this mess.” 

“We?” Zuko asked, standing up as well, “I’m not cleaning anything. You’re the peasant, you clean it.”

“I’m not cleaning anything for you arrogant jerk.” she frowned.

Zuko rolled his eyes, having no energy to argue with her, and called one of the guards in instead two summon the cleaning staff to clean it. The two stood by, still covered in food, watching as cleaned up the mess. Katara shook her head, not being able to stand by and watch someone else clean up her mess, and helped out. Zuko scoffed, and went into the bathroom to clean himself up. 

When everything was over, everyone was cleaned up, and the two had eaten another breakfast, Zuko had later decided he would go for training seeing as he and the waterbender couldn’t be in the same room without nearly killing each other. Katara was a bit upset, it wasn’t that she wanted him to stay, it was more or so that she didn’t want to be alone in the room.   
“Wait,” she said as she was in the mirror brushing her hair, “let me go.” 

“No.” 

“But why?” 

Zuko looked at her as if she had grown a pair of horns, “You’re a prisoner, not a guest, you don’t just get to roam the ship as you like.” 

The waterbender smirked, “Fine, guess I’ll just be here with all your valuables.” she hinted. 

Zuko’s eyes narrowed at her, his hand balding into a fist, “You wouldn’t.” 

“I would.” 

“If any of my things are damaged I will lock you in a cell and treat you like a real prisoner, waterbender, don’t test me.” 

“You think I’m afraid of a cell? Try me, jerk.” she threatened in response. 

The two stared each other down for a minute before the prince caved in and rolled his eyes, deciding it pointless to risk getting his things destroyed, or getting lectured by his uncle about locking her up in a cell. 

“Fine.” he said, “but if you-”

“I’m not going to try anything.” she said, cutting him off, then averted her gaze to the bathroom door, “I just don’t want to be here alone.” she sighed and in a whisper she said, “I don’t trust myself to be here alone.” 

And the truth was, she didn’t. After her episode last night she didn’t trust herself to be left alone. She didn’t want to face her own thoughts and being distracted with someone would help her stay away from them. In a way, she was protecting herself from herself.

Zuko heard that whisper, and immediately understood what she was getting at. He too felt like that at one point, but he always had his uncle at his side. Katara didn’t have anyone. Because she’s a prisoner, he told himself, but furrowed his eyebrows and thought again, but she’s still a human. 

Not wanting to fight with himself, Zuko caved into his softer side and brought her up to the deck with him to train with his uncle, who was pleasantly surprised to see Katara. 

The two sat and watched the firebending prince perform his usual routines. Katara was amazed, she had never seen a firebender practice the way Zuko did; he was determined with every kick and punch he gave and not once did he lose concentration. 

His uncle occasionally chimed in gave him direct orders to do things like straighten his posture, or fix the way his kick or punch was angled. But Katara couldn’t see the flaws in his performance. Maybe because she didn’t have the eye of a firebender. 

“It’s very different from waterbending, isn’t it?” Iroh asked her. 

“It is.” Katara agreed, “a waterbenders movements are more smooth and lose, like airbending. A firebenders elements are more rigid and hard, like earthbending.” 

“How skilled are you, miss Katara?” 

“Not very skilled.” she shrugged. 

“What about in hand to hand combat?” he asked, and Katara shook her head.

“I know some moves, but not really. They’re moves that I learned from waterbending.” 

“My nephew is quite skilled in hand to hand combat, perhaps he could show you a few things.” 

Katara laughed, “as if he would teach me things that would help me kick his butt.” 

“I have quite a way with words.” Iroh smiled, “Prince Zuko, come here a minute.” 

The prince walked over to the two, all sweaty from training, and reached behind Katara to get his towel. The simple act caused him to brush up against her and she felt goosebumps rise on her skin. 

“Katara here says she’s very good in hand to hand combat.” Iroh lies.

Zuko looks at the two with disbelief, “No she isn’t.” 

“But I am,” Katara plays along, “I honestly could kick your butt if I wanted to.” 

Zuko glared, “Then bring it on, waterbender.”

“Fine.” she said, standing up. She and the prince walked over to the middle of the deck, and assumed their positions. 

Katara made the first strike, a punch in the prince’s direction, to which he blocked with ease, and was able to land a blow on her back. She fell to the floor, but immediately rolled over, and hoped to her feet.

The prince was smirking, looking at her with a taunting look and she glared at him. She went to punch him again, but this time he grabbed her wrist and twisted it behind her back, and just as she went to elbow him in the stomach, he grabbed her other hand with his and brought it to her chest. 

The firebender leaned down and whispered in her ear, his breath brushing across the skin of ear making her shiver with goosebumps, a small bubbly feeling erupting in her stomach that she refused to acknowledge. He smirked, “I thought you were skilled.” 

Katara struggled a bit in the prince’s hold, and in response he brought the hand from behind her back in front of her waist so that they were back to chest, making the waterbender blush at the proximity. The bubbly feeling seem to get even worse, and even harder to ignore. It seemed positions like this were envivitable for the two teens. 

She turned and looked up at the firebenders eyes, and found a playful stare looking back at her, he knew damn well I wasn’t skilled, she thought.

“Seems you’ve bested me.” she said, a smirk playing at her own lips. She had found a way to spin his game in her favor. 

“That I did.” His words ticking at the side of her face, “And what do I get for it?” 

“This.” 

The waterbender stomped on his foot as hard as she could and the prince immediately released her from his hold, doubling over in pain. She slid away from him and raised her knee, aiming for his head, but despite the searing pain in his foot, he was quicker than she was. He lifted up in time and pushed her knee down, swinging his own foot around to hit her waist. 

Katara was able to block his foot from hitting her waist using her elbow, but not with as much strength as she’d like, so it left her a bit wounded. He swung again, but with his fist aiming for her wounded arm this time, and it landed. 

“Ow!” she hissed, “That’s too hard!”

“You stomped on my foot!” he argued.

“You had me trapped, what was I supposed to do?” 

“Not complain when I put you in as much pain as you put me.” 

“Enough,” Iroh intervened, “I think you two are done for today. Go and cleaned up and get ready.” 

Zuko groaned and rubbed his temples, “Uncle, do you have to do this?” 

“Of course!” he said, “We can’t miss it for the world.” 

“Miss what?” Katara asked, looking between the two with a confused expression. 

Iroh smiled, “Music night!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever been in a fight with someone?


	8. Music Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Music night doesn't go as planned.

Music night was nothing like Katara had expected. 

All the guards were there, but they weren’t acting like guards. They were regular men, chatting amongst themselves, having drinks. There were lots of musical instruments all over the corners of the place, saving the middle for what Katara assumed was the dance floor. There was a table filled with a bunch of assorted drinks and foods. 

Everyone seemed to be having a good time, saved for the prince in the corner with his arms folded, watching everyone with a grumpy expression. She knew the prince wasn’t a party person. But his relative standing right next to her, happily drinking his tea while playing his horn definitely was. 

She walked over to the grumpy firebender, standing in front of him with a smile, “Do you ever enjoy anything, ever?” 

“No.” he said with a frown. 

Katara chuckled, “Zuko, you’re in a room full of happy ecstatic people enjoying themselves. That doesn’t give you a happy vibe?”

“I’m not some hippie.” he scowled, “My emotions don’t depend on the vibe of everyone else.” 

“Wow, you are so sour.” she scrunched up her nose. 

“You shouldn’t even be here, you’re a prisoner for God's sake.” Zuko pinched his nose, remember the argument he had with his uncle about allowing the waterbender to attend. 

“I’m basically a guest at this point.” she shrugged, “save for the fact I can’t leave.” 

“With my uncles help, you just might be able to.” 

Katara laughed at that, then sighed, “Zuko, remind me why you took me from Zhao in the first place.” 

“So that I can lure the avatar to me,” he said, “was that not clear?” 

“It was clear.” she said, “but, why? Why do you need the avatar?” 

Zuko sighed, “So that I can return home and restore my honor.” 

“Why can’t you just go home without him?” 

“Because I’m not allowed without him.” 

“Why?”

“Because I was banished.” 

“Why?” 

“Do you ever shut up?” he asked loudly, annoyed with all her questions, “mind your own business, that’s why.” 

“I just want to understand.” she said softly, looking up at him, her head cocked to the side as she examined his scar, “like, how’d you get your scar?” 

He shook his head, looking back down at her, “You’d never understand.” 

“You haven’t given me a chance to.” 

“You haven’t earned a chance to.” 

And Katara had no rebuttal. He was right. She hadn’t earned a chance to understand him, but she also didn’t know how to. The prince was so cut off and disconnected from everyone, she didn’t even know where to begin. 

“Prince Zuko!” Iroh called, breaking the two apart and they turned their gazes to him, “You have to come try this!”

Zuko sighed in response and left Katara’s side to see his uncle. Katara shook her head, and walked over to the food table. The had a various assortment of fire nation food, and Katara took full advantage of it. 

“Save some for the rest of us.” she heard from behind her, and she spun around and came face to face with a guard she didn’t recognize. He stood uncomfortably close to her, and she stepped back as far as she could. 

“I’m Hoshi.” he said, “You must be the beautiful prisoner prince Zuko keeps locked in his room.” 

Katara forced a smile, “I am.” 

He looked her up and down and she shivered, “It’s sad though, he never let’s the rest of us get a turn.”

“A turn on what?” she asked. 

“On you.” he said, “Pencey and I have been aching.” 

She nearly spit out her drink at his straightforwardness, “Excuse me? I’m not some doll you idiot’s can pass around! The prince and I have done nothing with one another.” 

“We saw the way you two were training today, you can’t tell me he hasn’t bed you at least once.”   
“He hasn’t. What do you people take me for? What do you take him for?” She scowled in disgust at the man before her, who was smiling. 

“Two teenagers spending hours together at time in a hot room? Please.” He rolled his eyes, “It’s only a matter of time, though, before he leaves you alone long enough for Pencey and I to have a turn.” 

Katara glared at him, her eyes mad with fury and disgust. They had no shame in their actions, no remorse and she felt her stomach drop. “And how do you suppose that will happen?” 

“Like this.” 

He took her cup and spilled it on himself, then purposely fell back onto the table, knocking a bowl full of fire flakes onto the floor, grabbing everyone’s attention. 

“Oh come on! All I said was ‘hi’!” Hoshi said loudly. 

Katara stepped back, wide eyed, looking around at everyone who began giving her dirty looks. She looked back at the man, angered, “I didn’t even-” 

“Waterbender.” she heard Zuko say, closing in on her. He grabbed her arm, “You’re coming with me since you can’t seem to keep your hands to yourself.” 

“But I didn’t touch him!” Katara insisted, her eyes pleading the prince. 

“All I said was ‘hi’ to her, I was trying to be polite, and she threw her drink on me and pushed me.” he turned around, picking up the empty bowl of flakes, “she made me knock over our favorite snack!” 

A bunch of grumbles and angry stares came Katara’s way, and she felt her heart drop, she looked up at the angry prince, who was staring back at her with furious eyes, “Zuko, please.” 

“You expect me to believe you over my trusted guards?” he scowled, “Let’s go waterbender, it seems you need to be taught a lesson.” 

He didn’t give her time to rebuttal, he grabbed her arm and dragged her along with him, back toward his room. 

—

“Please Zuko, please listen to me.” she said for probably the ninth time, blocking the entrance to the room. The prince was standing in front of her, his hands to his side, fire threatening to erupt from his hands. 

“I don’t need to listen to you.” he told her, and reached for the door again, but she grabbed hold of his wrist. 

“I didn’t do it, I swear.” she said, “He did that to himself!” 

“Why the hell would he do it to himself, waterbender? What purpose would that serve?” he looked at her dumbfoundedly. 

“He told me that he and some Pencey guy was trying to get you to leave me alone so they could have their way with me.” she explained, this time her eyes filling with tears, fearing that it might actually happen, “please Zuko, you have to believe me.” 

Katara hated this. She hated pleading with her enemy to save her, but it was her only option. There was no way in hell she would be able to physically fight off two men as big as they were. She was always taught to be a tough, strong willed person, but since her kidnapping she had been depending on Zuko. She needed him to comfort her, to protect her, to help her. She had lost all hope in herself and in saving herself; now she was left to attach herself on to someone that would. 

When Zuko shook his head and turned the knob to open the door, Katara lost it. She grabbed onto his torso, burying her head in his chest, sobs racking her body, “No! You can’t leave me here alone. They’ll come Zuko, I know they will, please just don’t leave.” 

There was a moment of silence, and Katara could almost sense the mental battle that was probably going on in the prince’s head. She continued whispering please to him, clutching on to his armor until she felt his arms wrap around her back and him pull her up to him. 

The moment reminded her so much of the night before, and just like then she allowed herself to lay comfortably in his arms, her tears coming to a rest. His chin lay comfortably uptop her head and gave her a reassuring squeeze. 

When they shifted apart, his hands were still around her waist and hers still on his chest. Through the blur of her tears, she could see him looking down at her with another unreadable expression.

“I’m not leaving you, waterbender,” he assured her, “In fact, I have an idea.”


	9. We got 'em

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They got em.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLZ READ:   
I'm not a fan of how I wrote this chapter but I had to get some time in for them. I felt like if I had kept at the pace I was going it would be like 50 chapters before you guys even got a kiss, lol. I needed a larger time skip, so to speak. This is a slow burn, it's suppose to drag out but not too much to where people get uninterested. I already had like allot of chapters written before I published it but as I'm publishing I'm making some small changes so it's gonna take a while for the stories to get uploaded even though they're prewritten.   
PLZ READ BOTTOM NOTES.

Katara was lying peacefully on the bed, snuggled up in covers, and snoring just a bit. Her episode with Zuko had long past, and the firebender left the girl to her own musings in his chambers while he went to attend something important. 

The room was so quiet you could hear the sounds of the waves brushing up against the ship, and what interrupted this was the sound of the door creaking open, and footsteps haunting in the room as quietly as possible. 

The door shut, and two men glowered over Katara and looked at her as if she was a piece of meat and they were two hungry dogs. One of them reached over and grabbed her shoulder and pulled her toward him. 

Katara screamed to the top of her lungs immediately, “Let go of me!” she yanked herself out of predators grip, only to be grabbed by another man and forced down onto the bed. 

“She’s a feisty one, isn’t she?” Pencey asked Hoshi with a devious smirk on his fast. Hoshi nodded in response. 

Neither of them expected the door to burst open, with an angry prince and his equally as upset uncle standing there. Zuko quite literally had fire coming out of his nose at that point. He grabbed the closest to him, Hoshi, and threw him off Katara effortlessly. The prince then picked the man up by his hair threw him against the wall. 

Katara lifted her leg and kneed Pencey in his manhood, then jumped up on her feet on the bed and pushed the man onto the floor while he was holding his genitals. She looked between the two men withering on the floor with a smile, “See, I told you.” 

“I never thought my own comrades were capable of something like this.” Iroh said with disappointment as he shook his head. 

“Guards!” Zuko called, “Take these traitors to the prison hold. We’ll figure out what to do with them later.” 

Two other guards that Zuko had previously deemed trustworthy before the ordeal had gone down, scooped up Hoshi and Pencey and promptly took them to the prison hold. Katara hoped down from the bed and smiled over at the two, “Thank you.” 

“Thank you, miss Katara. Without you we wouldn’t have known there were two predators on our ship.” Iroh bowed slightly, “I’ll leave you two to it, good night.” 

“Good night.” Katara said and Zuko grunted. Iroh shut the door behind him and Zuko locked it. 

Katara took a deep breath and sat down on the bed, “Your plan worked.” 

“As it should.” he said, “I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to trust anyone after this. Not even you, peasant.” 

“I’m upset I didn’t get to really enjoy music night.” Katara changed the subject, ignoring his insult. 

“They’ll be plenty more music nights, waterbender.” he replied, “not that you’ll be able to attend them. You’re a prisoner.” 

“Are you still holding onto that?” she scowled, “I’m basically your roommate now, Zuko.” 

“We are not roommates. I can kick you out at any time.”

“Whatever, you like me here.” she smiled, “You’d miss me if I left.”

“You’ve only been here for three days.” 

“The best three days of your life.” 

Zuko scoffed and rolled his eyes, “And you call me arrogant.” 

“You are arrogant.” she said, looking over at him this time, “but you’re also very honest about your flaws, something a lot of people can’t be.”

The room went silent when Zuko didn’t respond, and Katara knew what she said got him thinking, she spoke up again, “Zuko?”

“What?”

“You said earlier that I didn’t earn the right to understand.” she sighed, “how do I do it? How do I earn the right?” 

He was silent for a moment, “I don’t know.” he said in a hoarse whisper, “you’ll just know when you have it.” 

That wasn’t the answer Katara was hoping for, but it was better than nothing. The waterbender knew that she wouldn’t be able to escape, she was sure of that, and she didn’t know if Aang and her brother would actually be able to find her. The only chance she felt she had was to turn the prince’s heart around. 

She wanted more than anything for prince Zuko to open to her about his past, so that maybe she could find the root for his motive and give a change of heart, but she couldn’t do that without trust. She needed to know why Zuko had to do what he did in order for her to even put different ideas in his head. But she was confident she could do it. She could put him on the right side. 

She just hoped that neither of them will catch feelings during the process. 

—

A couple weeks after the incident, Katara was sitting next to Iroh watching the prince train. It was really the only time she was allowed out of the room besides for special favors; like if Iroh called her to his room for some one on one tea talk, which was always fun. 

“Waterbender,” she heard the prince say, and she looked directly at him with an eyebrow raised, “Come here for a second.” 

Even after all this time he still refused to call her by her name. She shook her head walked over to him, “What?” 

“Train with me.” he told her. 

She raised an eyebrow at him, “I think we remembered how that went the last time.” 

“No.” he rolled his eyes, “I want you to use bending.” 

She looked at him, astounded by what he had said, “Really?” 

“Don’t get any ideas. I just want to face an opponent that doesn’t bend fire.” he glared at her, “Don’t try anything. My men won’t hesitate to take you down.” 

“Whatever your highness.” she rolled her eyes, “I’m not that good anyways. Someone has been denying me some practice.” And it was true. Prince Zuko was very strict on his rules about no bending, but, luckily for her, Iroh had been secretly allowing her to practice whenever she had went to his chambers. When they were sure the prince was occupied, he took her up to the top deck to allow her to push the waves or even helped her with a few moves she had been trying to master. 

“Why would I allow a prisoner to practice a skill that could aid them in escape?” he rolled his eyes this time, “just stand over there and give me all you’ve got.” 

“Yes sir.” she said with a smirk. She stood farther away from and assumed a bending position. They were smirking at one another for a while before Zuko made the first move by shooting a fireball her way. She countered with her move and the attack turned into smoke. 

The two went at each other with good attacks, surprising Zuko completely. Katara was a much better opponent then he was expecting. She had even gotten a few hits in on him. However, Zuko had been learning firebending from some of the best masters there was, and with all his years of experience was able to defeat Katara in their little sparing matching. 

It ended with her exhausted, and she went to make a final blow at Zuko but he dodged it with ease, knocking her on her feet. He kneeled down in front of her, one knee up and one down, his hand holding one of her wrists, his knee pressed down -lightly- on her other arm, and him holding a fist threateningly close to her head. 

She was breathing heavy, she had lost, but she put up a fight, and that alone was a boost in her confidence. 

“You did better than I thought,” Zuko admitted, as he removed his threatening hand, “With a bit more practice you’ll be a worthy opponent. You won’t be better than me, but…”

Katara sat up, her legs still under his, and she leaned on her elbows for support, “Way to think highly of yourself, Zuko.” 

“I’m not wrong.” he shrugged. He stood up, giving out his hand to her and took it and he helped her up from the ground, her landing a bit closer then both intended. He looked down at her, smirking, “Do you know how long it took me to get where I am now?” 

“Years I’m sure.” 

“And I’m still not good enough.” he said in a whisper, his gaze moving down to the ship floor. 

Katara shook her head, grabbing his chin in her hand and forcing him to look at her, “I think you’re perfect the way you are.” 

During the weeks that had been together, the two were growing increasingly close. They had gotten used to touching and talking in the small space that was Zuko’s room. It started off small with shoulder touches, and small waist touching incidents, but soon escalated to grooming one another. There were incidents where Zuko would find himself running his fingers through Katara’s hair; and she’d let him. Or sometimes she would be stroking his arm, or hands or fingers, and he would let her. 

The big change happened one night when the prince was asleep, and Katara was having another nightmare. He had woken up, like the incident before, and found her thrashing about in her sleep. He shook her awake again, but this time she wasn’t crying, she was having a panic attack. 

He was able to calm her down, and in doing so he thought she would fall back asleep, and he would be able to move back to his side of the bed. But to his surprise, he felt her hand gently touch the side of his face and he looked at her, alarmed. Her thumb began stroking his scar, and he couldn’t find it in himself to remove it. It was like she was admiring it somehow, and that thought alone gave him a feeling he wasn’t able to explain. 

Hugs weren’t too frequent, but Katara expected this. The prince was warming up to her, sometimes telling her small details about himself, but the process was taking her longer than she thought. Aang only had a certain amount of time to defeat the firelord, and she had no idea where he and Sokka were currently. She thought maybe they had went on with the original plan and headed to the north pole, and they hoped she would too. 

But she wasn’t certain where he or anyone else was. She could only guess. And the more she gained the trust of the prince the more she was going to be able to steer him in the right direction. She knew Prince had a good heart, she just had to find it. And once she did, they could begin their search for Aang and she would start with the north pole. 

Zuko looked at Katara would an unreadable expression as he grasped the wrist of the hand that was holding his face. She smiled at him. The two broke apart when they heard the sound of Iroh clearing his throat. It was like they had forgotten about everything around them when they were talking to one another. 

“Lunch is ready.” Iroh said, “and eat up, we won’t be served dinner.” 

“What? Why not?” she asked. 

“We ran out of food.” Iroh said sadly, “But don’t worry, tomorrow we will stop at a nearby town to get food.”

“We’re making a stop?” Katara asked. 

“Yes, the first one in quite a while.” Iroh said, “maybe I can take you shopping.”

Zuko scowled, “You really think I’m going to let her off the ship?” 

“I need to go shopping, Zuko.” she pleaded, a blush creeping onto her cheeks, “I need some feminine things.” she partially lied. 

A day or two before Zhao kidnapped her, she drank some of her conception tea. A special tea that prevented women from getting pregnant one month after consuming it. She by no means intended to have sex while traveling, but it helped for a lighter, almost non existent cycle. She didn’t drink the tea every month, as it’s recommended not to, but her time to drink it again was approaching. 

However she didn’t need to buy the tea. It came as a large surprise to her when she found that general Iroh himself had the tea. The tea had no effect on men and it wasn’t exactly the tastiest thing around. When asked why, he explained that he buys all tea, and doesn’t really know what the tea is until he gets ready to make it. 

Not to mention, Katara had already had her cycle while on the ship. It was very light and didn’t last long thanks to the tea, but because they share a bathroom, the prince had noticed. Katara didn’t have to explain it to him. “I have a sister.” was all he said and she chuckled. It was a lot better than having another awkward conversation, she thought, recalling the how weird it was for her to explain it to Aang and Sokka. 

“Fine.” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose, “You can go shopping with us. But you are to be supervised at all times. Understood?” 

“Good enough for me. “ Katara smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's getting closer and closer toward the middle-climax part that I had planned where the story kind of gets on track with the original series. The story takes place, if you haven't guessed already, some time before they reached the north pole. And right now, I kind of had some chapters done about how I wanted to make it, but I'm also revising allot so I'm open to ideas. If you like the story, give me some predictions about what you guys think might happen with Katara trying to change Zuko.


End file.
